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Gun Show Debate

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Over the years I have seen people from both political parties get upset when the President they elected is not doing what he promised to do in his speeches prior to being elected. The promises are either not met, taking longer than expected, or incomplete. Just because the President is on the Forbes 2015 list of “most powerful people in the world” does not mean he has all the power. It is not because the President is deceiving you, the law making process is just very complex. The President has limitations of power that are placed upon him.
The Constitution and other statutes enforce these limits onto the President. The Congress also is able to limit the power of the President. Many of the actions the President would like to take has to go …show more content…

For example the Gun Show Background Check Act of 2013. This Act came up after the Sandy Hook School Massacre in December. The Act would expand the background check on the sale of firearms as well as military weapons. The Act was said to have nearly 85% of American support. Unfortunately the Senate voted against the bill in a 54 to 46 vote short of the 60 vote majority. This was very shocking to a lot of American citizens not only because of what happened previous with the school shootings, but because of the people who signed on with the bill who also had an A rating with the NRA (National Rifling Committee). The NRA lobbied against the bill, and even stated after the bill failed that the bill would have “criminalized certain private transfers of firearms between honest citizens”. The executive director of the NRA Chris Cox also stated that “we have noted previously, expanding background checks, at gun shows or elsewhere, will not reduce violent crime or keep our kids safe in their schools”. Now the bill might not have reduced violent crime or schools shootings drastically but it would have had some type of impact. This is one of the biggest examples of how the President can have overwhelming public support for a bill, and the bill still not pass the Senate. The Presidents spend a lot if their time gaining the support of the public opinion. This is mainly for the purpose of gaining influence with Congress. Many times this is hard to do because the President can be from one political party while Congress holds the majority in the other political party. This means the President will have to face more obstacles to get the legislation passed. In this case this is what President Obama did and greatly succeeded. Unfortunately Congress still holds the lawmaking authority and with the Gun Show Background Check Act 2013 Congress did vote

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